Former Schindler's factory in Brněnec to be Holocaust memorial

ČTK |

11 August 2016

Brnenec, East Bohemia, Aug 10 (CTK) - The Czech Endowment Fund Memorial of Shoah and Oskar Schindler wants to turn a former factory and concentration camp in Brnenec into a memorial to the Holocaust victims, board head Jaroslav Novak has told CTK.

During World War Two, German industrialist Oskar Schindler (1908-74) employed in the factory Jewish workers brought from Poland by which he saved more than 1000 people from death.

The current owner of the complex has promised to provide a part of it for the fund and the local self-rule authority also supports the project.

Novak said the revitalisation of the dilapidated building has a big economic potential in addition to the cultural-historical importance.

"The goal is to build a true copy of the complex on the original bases of the concentration camp, including watchtowers and the factory area, the hospital and the camp with prisoners," Novak said.

An exhibition on Schindler's life and the fates of some prisoners is to be part of the project.

The fund would like the memorial to be a place for excursions as well as exhibitions and conferences. It also plans to publish books, make documentaries and films on the Holocaust.

Schindler's life is also to be mapped by n educational trail.

"It is necessary to remind of things that should no longer be repeated," Brnenec mayor Blahoslav Kaspar told CTK.

Brnenec tried to build the memorial in 2004 already, but it did not have enough money.

Many consider Schildler, born in nearby Svitavy, a controversial person because he was also a member of the Nazi Party and the German military intelligence.

The Czech Endowment Fund Memorial of Shoah and Oskar Schindler was entered in the Company Register on July 8.

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